


So It Starts

by shawnie1718



Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Eliott doesn't hide his MI, Eliott is a transfer student from Paris, Eliott isn't really, Lucas has a good relationship with his mom, Lucas is still closeted, Lucas' name is pronounced Lucas with an s because it's set in America sorry not sorry, M/M, Slow Burn, canon compliant - to an extent, he joins the football team and is surprisingly good, his mom's MI is depression, they're in american high school btw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-23 10:36:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18150758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shawnie1718/pseuds/shawnie1718
Summary: Lucas never really liked soulmates.  At least he hasn't liked them for a while.  It just figures that his soulmark practically takes up his whole back, as if it's screaming at the world "this boy's taken! By his soulmate!"  He always thought that when his soulmate came around he would turn them down, just because he would actually want to have a choice.But maybe, possibly there someone out there who could change Lucas's mind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this fic I wrote at 1 am. It is going to be more than one chapter I promise. Also, real quick, Lucas's name is pronounced Lucas with an s by most people because it is set in America. Anyways, enjoy!

When Lucas was born his soulmark looked more like a birthmark.  Some doctors thought it  _was_ just a birthmark, until it started to change shape.  Around the time he turned seven years old the mark took up his entire back.  His mom wouldn't allow him out of the house without a shirt on.  Lucas loved his mark...at first.  He thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  He would stand in front of his mirror every morning staring at the black lines.  It looked like a drawing.  If you looked close enough you could see different pencil marks and pen marks throughout the image, as if someone had literally drawn it onto his back.  The entire image flowed so well.  It seemed like it was drawn from someones garden.  Flowers and plants intertwined with one another to create an image spanning from the top of his shoulders down to his lower back.

Middle school hit and his parents divorced.  Lucas knew his dad always thought his mom was too troublesome to actually care for her.  And then his dad found his soulmate.  That was the push for his parents to finally get divorced.  There was a lot of screaming every night and Lucas learned to hate soulmarks.  They were the reason his parents weren't together.  He would lay in his bed and cry and try to scrape his mark off until he was too tired to cry any longer.  He would wake up the next morning and check in the mirror to see if his mark had disappeared.  But of course it was always still there.

When his mom had her first suicide attempt Lucas' dad decided to send her to "a place where they can actually help her."  Lucas remembered going to visit her for the first time.  She looked better than the last time Lucas had seen her.  They spent the whole day in the library, moving between bookshelves playing hide and seek or sitting at the piano playing their favorite duet.  Lucas had never seen his mom so happy before.  He cried when he had to leave.

He managed through the end of middle school visiting his mom once every month.  He wish he could have seen her more often, but her nurse (Mary) insisted that his mom spend time caring for herself, whatever that meant. 

Starting off his freshman year of high school Lucas moved in with a "good friend."  Or at least that's what Lucas told his dad.  Really, he moved in with a guy named Mika who had found him one night in a compromising position outside a gay club downtown.  Mika never really brought that up to Lucas; how they met.  They had more of an understanding between the two of them.  Or at least Mika understood Lucas.

His flatmate really helped Lucas through his freshman year.  Turns out Mika is really good at English, which Lucas  _sucks_ at.  It was actually one night that they were working on English that Lucas found out Mika doesn't have a soulmate.  Lucas had told him that he was lucky, that he didn't have to deal with it.

Mika paused, placing the papers to the side, "why do you think I'm lucky?  Am I lucky because I don't have someone who will  _understand_ every aspect of me, flaw or not?  Am I lucky because I don't have someone waiting somewhere out there for me?" Lucas babbled for a response.  Mika sighed, "it's okay, Lucas, I've come to terms with it.  I get that you have a sore spot for soulmates, because of your parents.  But understand that there are people like me who don't even get the chance to have a soulmate."

They avoided the topic of soulmates from then on.

His sophomore year went practically the same as his freshman year.  He tried to put most of his effort into Biology once he realized it was actually  _interesting_.  It was also the year that he started having a major crush on his best friend, Yann.  At first Lucas pushed it aside as a simple infatuation between friends, since Yann was really the only one who stood beside Lucas and understood his situation with his parents.  But Lucas began to realize that as the conversations with his friends geared more towards girls, he became less and less interested in hanging out or partying.  He confided a lot in Mary, his mother's nurse.  They would talk out in the common room if his mom was in the middle of taking a nap or with her therapist.  Lucas felt like he could tell Mary practically anything.

"Do you have a soulmate?" Lucas asked her one day when they were playing Blackjack at one of the small tables in the lounge.  

Mary placed down a card and nodded, "yeah I do, he's a really stand-up guy," Lucas noted that she smiled when she said that, "you know, I used to be a lot like you.  I used to hate soulmates, though I didn't really have a reason  _to_ hate them.  I suppose I just didn't like the idea that I was  _destined_ to be with someone and that I didn't have a say in it.  But then, when I met him-"

Lucas cut her off, "what your whole life changed?  Time stood still?" He asked in a mocking tone.

Mary slapped him upside the head, "no, idiot.  We're  _platonic_ soulmates.  I had my eye on his best friend Emily, not him.  You see, he and I just clicked.  Like, our personalities were set to the same time.  Do you know what I mean?  But we weren't meant to be romantic with each other."

Lucas thinks he could get behind the idea of platonic soulmates.

Over the summer between sophomore and junior year his infatuation with Yann fizzled away.  To be honest, Lucas was left somewhat confused.  If he didn't like Yann and he didn't like girls, who or what does he like?  

The first week of school went by pretty normally.  But the Monday after their first weekend Lucas walked into school and people were mumbling and whispering amongst themselves.  He figured something happened at a party over the weekend.  But then he heard the words "new guy" and his ears pricked up.  Were they getting a transfer student?  Nothing like that ever happens in their small excuse for a town.  No wonder people are so taken with the idea.

Lucas makes a right turn but is looking left.  He manages to ram right into another student and, just like in movies, papers go everywhere.  Lucas swears and apologizes as he bends down to help pick up the papers.  He only looks up once everything is off the floor and he swears he is met with the eyes and face of an angel.  He babbles for a sentence for a few seconds before the guy laughs.

"I'm Eliott," the guy says as he helps them to their feet. 

 _Woah, accent_ , "I'm Lucas," he says and offers  _Eliott_ his papers.

" _Luca_?" the guy questions.

 _Fuck, say it again_ , Lucas wants to say.  Instead he goes with, "yeah, uh, there's usually an -s at the end but Luca works too."

Eliott smiles and thanks him for helping him pick up his papers.  Then he disappears into a sea of students.

Lucas lets out air he didn't realize he'd been holding.


	2. Chapter 2

Lucas bolts out of the classroom the second the bell rings.  Just his luck that his class before lunch is on the third floor and all the way on the opposite side as his locker.  He moves through the crowd heading down the main staircase and decides to take the stairs on the farther end of the hallway.  He briefly checks Instagram while walking through the door.  It's just the normal notifications from his friends sending memes in their big groupchat.  With that he puts his phone back in his pocket and begins taking the steps two at a time.  Suddenly there's a voice yelling after him, which spooks him so much he nearly falls the rest of the way down the stairs.  Lucas quickly grabs the railing in order to steady himself before turning around.

"Hey, Daphne, what's up?" he asks and pauses only briefly to let her catch up.

"Lucas!" she greets with a smile.  Lucas wonders how she could be this peppy on a Monday, "I'm glad I caught you.  Today after school I'm planning a get together in the old art room."

Lucas raises a brow at her, "that dusty room behind the library?"

She nods excitedly, "yeah!  I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come?  I'm trying to turn it into a place where people can come and socialize..." she lets herself trail off.

"Uh, I guess." Lucas didn't want to say no to her face, he isn't that mean.

Daphne beams, "great!  And try to get your friends there!"  She yells after him before she disappears behind the door leading back into the main building.

There was no way Lucas was getting his friends to that, unless he fibbed.  Lucas pauses at the end of the stairs and found that he had a few crumpled dollars in the bottom of his pocket, just enough to buy lunch rather than having to run back to his locker.  He opens his messages on his phone as he steps outside.  He may as well  _ask_ the guys if they can come.

_Lucas: anyone wanna come with me to this meeting Daphne is having after school today?_

He doesn't have to wait long for the responses.

_Arthur: sorry, man, I have to clean my shoes._

Since when had Arthur ever cleaned his shoes?

 _Yann:_ _yeah, I gotta help him clean his shoes_

_Baz: Fuck! I actually have to do something after school.  Tell Daphne I'm sorry and that if she wants to hit me up in my DMs thats cool._

_Arthur: Baz, seriously_

Lucas rolls his eyes and stuffs his phone back into his pocket, what useless friends he has.  Lucas flips up his hood as he walks into the wind to cross the street to the Farmers Market.  This place is like a saving grace for all the students at the high school because they don't have to deal with the bad cafeteria food.  Lucas immediately beelines for the back where he knows all the drinks are.  He says a quick greeting to the guys working behind the meat counter.  They usually like to talk to Lucas and other students, it must get boring being all the way in the back.

Lucas is in and out as fast as possible.  He realized he still had a ton of math worksheets he forgot to do over the weekend and doesn't really feel like trying to sit with his friends while trying to get them done.  He decides to sit outside on the front lawn under his favorite tree.  "Favorite tree" sounds like it's weird.  Which, to be fair, it is.  But it was the tree his family would go picnicking under before the whole divorce situation and his moms breakdown.

He readjusts his hood as he sits against the tree, allowing himself just a couple seconds before reaching inside his backpack for his math stuff.  He's downing his food, taking two mouthfuls at a time, as his eyes never leave the paper in front of him.  _Damn fractions!_ he wants to yell into the oblivion.  He's about to start pulling at his hair (math really isn't his subject) until a voice interrupts his thoughts.

"Salut!"

Lucas looks up so fast he think he was about to get whiplash.  He only knew that greeting from his three years of barely passing French.  Lucas's mouth waters (he hopes he wasn't drooling) as he watches the guy from the hallway walk up to him.  Lucas gives him a greeting, moving his backpack a little to make room in case he wanted to sit down.  Sure there was plenty of room surrounding him but he just thought it was the polite thing to do.  Thankfully Eliott got the message and dropped his backpack to his side before sitting down on the grass across from Lucas.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Eliott asked "what are you working on?"

Lucas did his best to not jump with the abrupt end to their silence, "oh, just math.  Not hard...well, yes hard, but..." Lucas cursed at himself, will he ever be able to form a coherent sentence around this guy?

"I would offer, but I'm not great with math either," Eliott smiled.  Lucas smiled back,  _damn even his smile is contagious,_  "anyways, thank you for letting me sit with you.  I haven't really met anyone else yet."

"What?!  A guy with your good looks should have...uh-I meant" Lucas cringed,  _yeah there was no coming back from that._

Thankfully Eliott found it humorous and laughed, "I got what you meant," he paused, "thanks."  If it were possible Lucas blushed even more.

There was a pause in the conversation, but it was more welcoming than their last silence.  "Hey," Lucas began, "I have to go to this meeting hosted by one of my 'friends' after school today.  Do you wanna come with?  It's supposed to be a way for people to socialize and get to know each other.  You can be my plus one."

Eliott smiled and breathed a laugh, "okay."

Lucas nodded, slightly proud of himself.  He looked down at his watch for a split second and cursed when he saw the time, "we better get going or else we'll be late for class," Lucas said while packing everything into his backpack.  As he was leaving, Lucas suddenly got an idea.  So over his shoulder he yelled after Eliott a quick "salut, mec!"  

Lucas tried to take a mental picture of the smile spreading across Eliott's face.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Lucas wasn't sure what he was expecting from Eliott.  But when the meeting began and there was no sign of Eliott, Lucas's heart sunk a bit.  Sure, Lucas had forgotten to tell Eliott  _where_ , exactly, the meeting was being held.  But Daphne had posters up everywhere in the school.  All Eliott would really have to do to get any information was to read a flyer.  So, after this newfound feeling of heartbreak, Lucas zoned out.  He spent the majority of the time on his phone, doing homework, yada yada.  As the meeting came to a close Daphne handed out a questionnaire.  Lucas filled his out relatively quick.  Once everyone was done they collectively got up and turned in their answers.  Lucas somehow got stuck at the end of the line and ended up being one of the last people to leave the room.

Just as his feet crossed the threshold he heard his name being called.  He turned to look over his shoulder to see Daphne staring expectantly at him.  He sighed internally before turning around to face her, "what's up?"

"Well, to get some attention for this project and jumpstart the fundraising, we were thinking of having like a bake sale or car wash of some sort.  We were hoping you would help us with it?"  Daphne said and motioned to the rest of her group, which consisted of Emma, Imane, and Alexia.  

Lucas resisted the urge to scoff, "why would I help with that?"

Imane stepped forward, making Lucas stare right into her eyes.  She was Lucas's Bio partner and was practically carrying them right now.  "Because we have, this," she says and pulls a small bag of weed out of her pocket.  Lucas recognizes the package.

"Fuck! You found it?"

Imane forced a smile, "yeah, on the floor at Emma's house after her party.  Would be a shame if it ended up in the trash..." Imane said and raised an eyebrow.

Lucas groans internally, "if I help you, I get it back?" Imane nods as Lucas pauses to think.  "Fine.  But it's gonna be a car wash.  I'm not going to  _bake_ anything."

A month passed with absolute radio silence from Eliott.  Sure, they hadn't really talked.  Actually they didn't even know each other.  Not even their last names.  They just ran into each other in the hall then talked while Lucas rushed to finish him math homework.  Lucas got the message that they weren't really going to be friends when he saw Eliott sitting with the football team during lunch.  And he had his arm around a cheerleader.  She was cute.  Lucas saw them kiss.  He felt like he was going to throw up and ran to the bathroom, completely abandoning his friends and lunch. 

He didn't know why he felt that way.  It's not like he had a right to.  They barely ever had a conversation, let alone a relationship.  So Lucas pushed it down.  Plus, the project with Daphne and the rest of the group took up most of his time.  They actually became a relatively large portion of his life within the span of a month.  And before any of them knew it, the car wash fundraiser was a go.  They held it on a Saturday.  Thankfully it was still rather warm so they could wear clothes proper for washing cars.  Lucas showed up with shorts and a white T-shirt ready to go.

He walked over to the money jug they prepared and slipped in a twenty.  Emma gave him a look.  He shrugged, "just to get us started."

Emma nodded, briefly looking away.  Lucas heard the sound of knob turning and sound of water running.  And before he knew it Emma had hosed him down head to toe.  He shook his head and began chasing after her with a bucket of soapy water.  Pretty soon everyone was soaked, and no one was smart enough to think to bring towels with them.

But Lucas supposes it doesn't matter, because apparently washing cars is hard work and he was getting drenched anyway.  Pretty soon people were just piling in.  It pretty soon came to the point where every person was manning a car, just in order to keep the line moving.  Daphne was ecstatic.  There was a small break around noon, which was perfect for them to eat any snacks they brought.  Though, soon after, they watched as the entire football team piled into the lot.  Music blaring and boys were shouting from their cars.

Emma rolled her eyes and walked over to Alex, "you didn't have to make the whole team come," Lucas heard her say.

He didn't hear his response because he turned away to fill his sponge with soapy water.  Lucas nearly jumped at the call of his name from an unknown source behind him.  He turned around and straightened up to see Eliott standing there.  Lucas pressed his lips into a line.  Why was he acting so pissed at Eliott?  He didn't really have time to think about it.  "Hey," Lucas said and nodded a greeting.

"This is really cool, what you guys are doing with the foyer project," Eliott began and Lucas forgot how cute his french accent was, shit.

Lucas shrugged, "I sorta got pulled into all this.  They're a good crowd, but a little weird."

"Sometimes weird is good," Eliott offered.

Lucas nodded in agreement, "I guess I'm a little weird."

"I think we've figured out that we like weird, huh?"

Lucas hated that he laughed at that.  It soon died, however, and Lucas replaced it with a question, "so...football?" Lucas looked up to briefly meet Eliott's eyes; studying their color before looking back down at his feet. "Seems you made friends.  Got a girlfriend."

"Yeah, I thought I might as well do the most stereotypical American high school student thing and try football," Eliott said, "but I suppose I like it more than I thought I would."

"Well I'm glad you found your niche," Lucas tried to sound as genuine as possible.  He finally looked up and locked eyes with Eliott.  Lucas felt his knees go weak as he felt Eliott's eyes scan his face before landing on his lips.  Lucas's eyes began to drift down, from Eliott's hair to his eyes, to his cheeks and nose, to his-

"Lucas!"  Daphne yelled from across the lot, "we don't have time to stop and flirt!  Get your butt moving!"

Lucas felt his face heat up and turn a bright red.  He cleared his throat to try and ease any tension Daphne may have created.  Lucas brushed past Eliott, "sorry, I gotta get back to-"

Lucas was pulled back by a hand around his lower arm.  It held him in place as Eliott's other hand pulled at a single strand in Lucas's hair.  Once Eliott released him, Lucas was dumbfounded for a second.  He forced himself out of any Eliott-induced-state he may have entered and turned and walked to the nearest car.  He felt Eliott's eyes on him the whole way there.  Square between his shoulders.


End file.
